Chick Corea & Bela Fleck
The Enchantment

The problem with a great many of Béla
Fleck’s albums, with or without the Flecktones, is that they frequently are too
cerebral for their own good. Undeniably, he is a virtuosic performer who never
suffers from a shortage of ideas. While his music has been both technically
magnificent and intellectually stimulating, it also has had a tendency toward
being difficult to approach. Evidenced by his forays with bass player Edgar
Meyer and banjoist Tony Trischka, these issues are magnified when he is placed
within the framework of a duet setting. For his latest project The
Enchantment, Fleck teamed with legendary pianist Chick Corea to run through
10 new compositions and a cover of Ary Barroso’s seminal, Latin jazz standard Brazil. Although the set occasionally becomes mired within the duo’s
intricate and highly focused thought processes, there also are plenty of
indications that this is a collaboration that truly could work, if only it was
given the proper time to develop and grow.

Building upon their shared love of bending genres until they break, Corea and
Fleck seamlessly blur the line between jazz and bluegrass, though blues licks
and classical flourishes manage to dart through the proceedings, too.
Nevertheless, it’s not where the songs begin but rather where they end that
gives The Enchantment its distinctive flavor. Without even glancing at
the liner notes, it is immediately apparent who wrote each of the outing’s
tracks, but time and again, the duo connects midstream to incorporate a more
rounded perspective into the music. Fleck’s Mountain, for example, begins
with Corea and Fleck loosely playing with the familiar theme from the
traditional folk tune Shady Grove, but as it progresses, they gradually
allow the melody to spiral outward until it becomes a jazz-inflected
abstraction. Likewise, Corea’s Children’s Song #6 skips playfully along
its classically minded constructs, but as it unravels, it is transformed into a
brisk dance that defies categorization.

All of the compositions featured on The Enchantment succeed in
generating some level of excitement at the possibilities that they hold, but
over the course of the endeavor, the formula that Corea and Fleck employed
remains disturbingly noticeable. In effect, each tune follows a pattern that
begins with the introduction of an idea that is tossed back and forth between
the instrumentalists. The piano and banjo initially square off and circle around
each other, and on subsequent iterations, rhythm and melody become further
intertwined. Granted, this is the basic concept that lurks behind any
improvisational sojourn. On The Enchantment, however, Corea and Fleck
take absolutely no steps to mask their process, and this, in turn, is what keeps
the musicians from realizing the full potential of their collaboration.

The Enchantment is available from
Barnes & Noble. To order, Click Here!